Triarylamminium Radical Cation Facilitates the Deprotection of tert-Butyl Groups in Esters, Ethers, Carbonates, and Carbamates

We report a catalytic protocol for mild OtBu deprotection using two commercial reagents: the tris-4-bromophenylamminium radical cation, commonly known as magic blue (MB^•+), and triethylsilane. Magic blue catalytically facilitates the cleavage of the C-O bond in tert-butyl carbamates, carbonates, esters, and ethers in a high isolated yield of up to 95%, and sacrificial triethylsilane accelerates the reaction. Without requiring high temperatures, transition metals, or strong acidic or basic catalysts, this method is suitable for structurally diverse compounds, including aliphatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic substrates.

Oxidative Cross-Coupling of β,β-Difluoroenol Silyl Ethers with Nucleophiles: A Dipole-Inversion Method to Difluoroketones

Oxidative cross-coupling of alpha-aryl-beta,beta-difluoroenol silyl ethers with heteroaromatics in the presence of Cu(OTf)(2) in wet acetonitrile proceeds smoothly, affording heteroaryldifluoromethyl aryl ketones in 61-88% yields. Alcohols also react as nucleophiles under the same conditions to provide alkoxydifluoromethyl aryl ketones in 73-80% yields. [reaction: see text]